It isn’t always easy to keep up with what’s happening in the US. “Shorter America” is a series where Dr Emma Shortis loops you in on what’s going on in America and shares news and analysis that you can trust.
Fri 6 Mar 2026 22.00
Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
On Friday, the Australian Prime Minister confirmed there were three Australian crew aboard the US submarine that sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. That strike killed at least 80 people, and left the rest to drown. The Prime Minister insisted “that no Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran.”
This week:
I wrote about this question for The Point on Friday – materially, the answer is “yes”. There is no “not participating” in a submarine. Aukus has dragged us in to an illegal war of choice, led by an administration unconstrained by “stupid rules of engagement”.
What are we doing?
I have to confess that my attempts to answer that question have taken up most of my headspace this week. I’ll have more analysis for you over the next few days, which also means this week’s column will be slightly shorter than usual – I hope you’ll forgive me.
In Iran, Trump is doing his worst.
In Foreign Policy, Ali Hashem outlines why “decapitating” the Iranian regime won’t work. In Foreign Affairs, Stephen Pomper has a piece on the erosion of constraints on the president’s ability to make war. In The Nation, Spencer Ackerman has a companion piece on the longer history of how that erosion of constraints – particularly via the War on Terror – paved the way for Trump.
When I wrote that piece about Aukus and Iran above, my dear colleague Allan Behm added a line for me:
“Trump and Netanyahu have normalised the sight of little coffins.”
I usually try to find something uplifting or joyful to add here, because we all need it. I hope you’ll forgive me a second time, but I’m not sure I can this week.
My friend Daniel James also has a piece about this over on The Spencer Street End: “the Deaths of the Schoolgirls in Minab”.
Take care of each other x
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The President of Peace has started another war. It began with the bombing of a school in southern Iran. According to Iranian authorities, the death toll from that strike now sits at 168. Many of the victims were children.
The Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs advisor Allan Behm said the “decapitation of the regime” in Iran marks the beginning of “massive instability bordering on long-term chaos”.
